Alexis Hall is hands down one of the best authors of his genre. He never takes himself too seriously and although very subtle, his sense of humor is manifest throughout this story. I love his use of the English language as he paints these delightful pictures with words that are fresh and colorful. That sounds ridiculous and is hard to explain but is the reason I have both read and listened to the narration of this novel several times.
The storyline is fun and the characters believable. You will immediately, absolutely and completely fall in love with the main character, Arden St. Ives. (I did periodically want to bitch slap him). I found myself laughing out loud through almost every situation Arden “falls” into. As much as this book made me laugh it also brought me to tears. Not hopeless-oh-my-god-why-did-I get-out-of-bed tears, but oh-the-poor-dear tears…for which there is almost always a remedy.
Finally, an audiobook is made or broken by the narrator. Joel Leslie is perhaps one of the best narrators out there. He excels in creating voices for multiple characters. The voice of each of his characters is unique and my mind is boggled at how the listener is led to believe there are actually several narrators even though it is just Mr. Leslie. Kudos to him.
This is book one in a three book series. It’s just a delightful story of innocence, hope, learning to communicate, consequences, and unconditional love.